This event history analysis explores factors driving the emergence over recent decades of comprehensive state-level student unit-record [SUR] systems, a potentially powerful tool for increasing student success. Findings suggest that the adoption of these systems is rooted in demand and ideological factors. Larger states, states with high proportions of students of traditional college-going age, and states subject to federal civil-rights monitoring, were more likely to adopt SUR systems, suggesting influences of demands posed by size and legal constraints. In addition, states with more liberal citizen ideology were more likely to adopt the systems. Interestingly, the strength of private colleges and universities in a state worked against the adoption of SUR systems, suggesting that privacy and autonomy concerns were important deterrents to adoption. The results of this analysis illuminate the factors that inhibit and enhance SUR systems' organizational and philosophical acceptance, and thus ideally can contribute to future policymaking in this arena.